Leftwich, coach tell different stories

Thursday

Nov 9, 2006 at 12:57 AM

BY MARK LONGTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSONVILLE - Jaguars QB Byron Leftwich wanted to clear everything up Wednesday. Instead, he created more confusion by contradicting coach Jack Del Rio about his injured left ankle.
Leftwich, who will sit out his third straight game Sunday, said all the right things. He said he doesn't want to be a distraction and wants to do everything he can to help the team win.
But he also contradicted just about everything Del Rio said Monday, showing discontent with his situation and demonstrating that he and the coach are not on the same page.
Del Rio said Leftwich's ankle was 85-90 percent healthy.
"I'm between 90 and 95 percent," Leftwich responded. "That's where I feel like I'm at. I don't know in my whole life if I will ever be 100 percent again. Nobody in this locker room is 100 percent. To be at 90 to 95 percent, that's great in this league. Everybody that ever played in this league understands that."
Del Rio said Leftwich's ankle won't get any better until an extended period of rest, adding that surgery was possible.
"A doctor didn't tell me that," Leftwich said. "It can go away. Maybe it's gone away. Maybe it's going away. Every time you sprain your ankle, stuff like this happens. It's not anything that's major.
"Everybody keeps talking about ankle surgery and this and that. To me, it's irrelevant at this point. I'm feeling good right now. I'm feeling healthy. I want to go out on it and continuously do back-to-back-to-back-to-back days to see how it feels."
Del Rio said he was sticking with Garrard solely because of health reasons.